<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
   - License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this
   - file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/. -->


<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN"
  "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd"[
  <!ENTITY % brandDTD SYSTEM "chrome://branding/locale/brand.dtd" >
  %brandDTD;
]>

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title>Getting started with Blogs &amp; News Feeds</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="helpFileLayout.css" type="text/css"/>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="chrome://communicator/skin/smileys.css"
      type="text/css"/>
</head>
<body>
<h1 id="getting_started_with_blogs_and_news_feeds">Getting
  started with Blogs &amp; News Feeds</h1>

<div class="contentsBox">In this section:
  <ul>
    <li><a href="#subscribing_to_blogs_and_news_feeds">Subscribing to blogs
      &amp; news feeds</a></li>
    <li><a href="#subscribing_to_blogs_and_news_feeds_from_browser">Subscribing
      to blogs &amp; news feeds from a browser window</a></li>
    <li><a href="#reading_blogs_and_news_feed_messages">Reading blogs &amp;
      news feeds messages</a></li>
    <li><a href="#posting_blog_messages">Posting blog messages</a></li>
    <li><a href="#adding_comments_to_a_blog_post">Adding comments to a blog
      post</a></li>
    <li><a href="#exporting_and_importing_feeds">Exporting and importing
      feeds</a></li>
    <li><a href="#editing_a_feed">Editing a feed</a></li>
    <li><a href="#removing_a_feed">Removing a feed</a></li>
    <li><a href="#using_different_blogs_and_news_feeds_accounts">Using
      different blogs &amp; news feeds accounts</a></li>
    <li><a href="#organizing_your_feeds">Organizing your feeds</a></li>
  </ul>
</div>

<h2 id="subscribing_to_blogs_and_news_feeds">Subscribing to blogs &amp; news
  feeds</h2>

<p>If you have set up a
  <a href="mailnews_getting_started.xhtml#setting_up_additional_mail_and_news_accounts">Blogs
  &amp; News account</a>, you can subscribe to Blogs &amp; News feeds.</p>

<p>To subscribe to a feed, begin from the Mail window:</p>

<ol>
  <li id="getting_into_the_feed_subscriptions_dialog">Get into the Feed
    Subscriptions dialog. There are several ways to do this:
    <ul>
      <li>In the accounts pane, click your desired Blogs &amp; News Feeds
        account to manage, then click in the Manage Subscriptions in the right
        pane.</li>
      <li>In the accounts pane, click your desired Blogs &amp; News Feeds
        account to manage, or a feed inside it, then open the File menu and
        choose Subscribe.</li>
      <li>In the accounts pane, <strong>right click</strong> your desired Blogs
        &amp; News Feeds account to manage and choose Subscribe...</li>
      <li>Open the Edit menu and select the Mail &amp; Newsgroups Account
        Settings option. In the Mail &amp; Newsgroups Account Settings dialog,
        click on a Blogs &amp; News Feeds account main section, and then
        click the Manage Subscriptions... button.</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>Once in the Feed Subscriptions dialog, click the Add button. The Feed
    properties dialog will appear.</li>
  <li>Type (or copy and paste) the feed URL into the Feed URL field.</li>
  <li>Click <q>Store articles in</q> dropdown list to choose the item list
    where you want the articles to be stored. This allows you to merge
    multiple feeds in one list item.</li>
  <li>Set <q>Show the article summary instead of loading the web page</q> to
    display a brief summary that blog feeds usually include for each article.
    
    <p><strong>Tip:</strong> Showing the article summary reduces the bandwidth
      traffic and is faster, since the summary is already downloaded when the
      feed is checked for new items. However, if you usually are interested in
      the full article, you will save time by unchecking this option.</p>
  </li>
  <li>Click OK to confirm the feed addition.</li>
</ol>

<p>[<a href="#getting_started_with_blogs_and_news_feeds">Return to beginning of
  section</a>]</p>

<h2 id="subscribing_to_blogs_and_news_feeds_from_browser">Subscribing to blogs
  &amp; news feeds from a browser window</h2>

<p>While browsing the web using &brandShortName;, you may find the Feed
  discovery icon (<img src="chrome://communicator/skin/icons/feedIcon.png"
  style="width: 16px; height: 16px;" />) while visiting a web page. You
  can click on it to see a list of available feeds and choose one to get it
  added to your first Blogs &amp; News Feeds account.</p>

<p>[<a href="#getting_started_with_blogs_and_news_feeds">Return to beginning of
  section</a>]</p>

<h2 id="reading_blogs_and_news_feed_messages">Reading blogs &amp; news feeds
  messages</h2>

<p>When you open your Blogs &amp; News account, you see the list of feeds to
  which you subscribed. &brandShortName; checks and downloads every feed for
  new messages.</p>

<p>To read blogs &amp; news messages, begin from the Mail window:</p>

<ol>
  <li>Double-click a blogs &amp; news account to see its feeds. (If there are
    no feeds, you may need to subscribe to one.)</li>
  <li>Click a feed name to see its messages.</li>
  <li>Click a message to read it. The header will show the original URL of the
    article, which you can click to open a browser window with the
    corresponding webpage.</li>
</ol>

<p>Depending on your settings for the Blogs &amp; News account and each
  individual feed, the message will be shown in its summarized view or the
  full view. You can change it by choosing the menu option View, and then Feed
  Message Body As. You can then select one of these options:</p>

<ul>
  <li><strong>Web Page</strong>: Select this to show the full web page of this
    message.</li>
  <li><strong>Summary</strong>: Select this to show the summarized, short
    version of this message.</li>
  <li><strong>Default format</strong>: Select this to show the article in its
    default format, as specified in the feed options or, otherwise, the Blogs
    &amp; News account.</li>
</ul>

<p>[<a href="#getting_started_with_blogs_and_news_feeds">Return to beginning of
  section</a>]</p>

<h2 id="posting_blog_messages">Posting blog messages</h2>

<p>To post a blog message, you need an account in the corresponding blog. Also,
  there is no standardized way to post blog messages, so you won&apos;t
  normally be able to post messages from &brandShortName; Mail component.
  Instead, you will need to open a browser window, log in to your blog account
  and use the web interface.</p>
 
<p>Some blog systems, however, allow posting blog messages by sending an email
  message to a specific address. You will need to find out if your blog service
  implements this feature, and the correct email address to use.</p>

<p>[<a href="#getting_started_with_blogs_and_news_feeds">Return to beginning of
  section</a>]</p>

<h2 id="adding_comments_to_a_blog_post">Adding comments to a blog post</h2>

<p>Since there is no standardized way to add comments to a blog post, you will
  usually need to open a browser window and use the web interface.</p>
 
<p>Some blog systems, however, allow adding comments by sending an email
  message to a specific address. You will need to find out if the blog service
  implements this feature, and the correct email address to use.</p>

<p>[<a href="#getting_started_with_blogs_and_news_feeds">Return to beginning of
  section</a>]</p>

<h2 id="exporting_and_importing_feeds">Exporting and importing feeds</h2>

<p>If you have set up a
  <a href="mailnews_getting_started.xhtml#setting_up_additional_mail_and_news_accounts">Blogs
  &amp; News account</a>, you can export or import Blogs &amp; News feed
  collections using the OPML format (Outline Processor Markup Language).</p>

<p>To export the feeds in your selected blogs &amp; news account, begin from
  the Mail window:</p>

<ol>
  <li>In the accounts pane, click your desired Blogs &amp; News account to
    manage, or a feed inside it.</li>
  <li>Open the File menu and choose Subscribe (or use any other of the
    <a href="#getting_into_the_feed_subscriptions_dialog">available methods</a>.
    to access to the Feed Subscriptions dialog box).</li>
  <li>In the Feed Subscriptions dialog, click the Export button. The Export
    feeds as an OPML file dialog will appear.</li>
  <li>Select the directory and filename to save the OPML file, and click
    Save.</li>
</ol>

<p>To import the feeds in your selected blogs &amp; news account, begin from
  the Mail window:</p>

<ol>
  <li>In the accounts pane, click your desired Blogs &amp; News account to
    manage, or a feed inside it.</li>
  <li>Open the File menu and choose Subscribe (or use any other of the
    <a href="#getting_into_the_feed_subscriptions_dialog">available methods</a>.
    to access to the Feed Subscriptions dialog box).</li>
  <li>In the Feed Subscriptions dialog, click the Import button. The Select
    OPML file to import dialog will appear.</li>
  <li>Select the directory and filename to load the OPML file, and click
    Save.</li>
  <li>All the feeds defined in the OPML file will be added to your blogs &amp;
    feeds account.</li>
</ol>

<p>[<a href="#getting_started_with_blogs_and_news_feeds">Return to beginning of
  section</a>]</p>

<h2 id="editing_a_feed">Editing a feed</h2>

<p>If you want to change the properties of one of the feeds in your blogs &amp;
  news account, you can edit it.</p>

<p>To edit a feed in your selected blogs &amp; news account, begin from the
  Mail window:</p>

<ol>
  <li>In the accounts pane, click your desired Blogs &amp; News account to
    manage, or a feed inside it.</li>
  <li>Open the File menu and choose Subscribe (or use any other of the
    <a href="#getting_into_the_feed_subscriptions_dialog">available methods</a>.
    to access to the Feed Subscriptions dialog box).</li>
  <li>In the Feed Subscriptions dialog, click on a feed in the feed list. You
    may need to expand the folders in the feed list to see each individual
    feed.</li>
  <li>Click the Edit button. The Feed properties dialog will appear.</li>
  <li>You can change where you want the articles to be stored clicking the
    <q>Store articles in</q> dropdown list.</li>
  <li>You may mark <q>Show the article summary instead of loading the web
    page</q> to display a brief summary that blog feeds usually include for
    each article.
    
    <p><strong>Tip:</strong> Showing the article summary reduces the bandwidth
      traffic and is faster, since the summary is already downloaded when the
      feed is checked for new items. However, if you usually are interested in
      the full article, you will save time by unchecking this option.</p>
  </li>
  <li>Click OK to confirm the changes.</li>
</ol>

<p>[<a href="#getting_started_with_blogs_and_news_feeds">Return to beginning of
  section</a>]</p>

<h2 id="removing_a_feed">Removing a feed</h2>

<p>If you no longer want to follow one of the feeds in your blogs &amp; news
  account, you can remove it.</p>

<p>To remove a feed in your selected blogs &amp; news account, begin from the
  Mail window:</p>

<ol>
  <li>In the accounts pane, click your desired Blogs &amp; News account to
    manage, or a feed inside it.</li>
  <li>Open the File menu and choose Subscribe (or use any other of the
    <a href="#getting_into_the_feed_subscriptions_dialog">available methods</a>.
    to access to the Feed Subscriptions dialog box).</li>
  <li>In the Feed Subscriptions dialog, click on a feed in the feed list. You
    may need to expand the folders in the feed list to see each individual
    feed.</li>
  <li>Click the Remove button. You will be asked to confirm the deletion of the
    feed.</li>
</ol>

<p><strong>Note:</strong> don&apos;t confuse a feed with a folder in a Blogs
  &amp; News account. Removing a feed doesn&apos;t delete the folder in which
  the feed articles are stored, and thus, such articles will stay in the folder
  until you delete either the whole folder or the articles themselves. To get
  a better understanding, see <a href="#organizing_your_feeds">Organizing your
  feeds</a> later in this section.</p>

<p>[<a href="#getting_started_with_blogs_and_news_feeds">Return to beginning of
  section</a>]</p>

<h2 id="using_different_blogs_and_news_feeds_accounts">Using different blogs
  &amp; news feeds accounts</h2>

<p>A single blogs &amp; news feeds account can contain any number of feeds in
  it, so you don&apos;t strictly need more than one blogs &amp; news feeds
  account. However, you may want to create several blogs &amp; news feeds
  accounts. Some reasons to do that are:</p>

<ul>
  <li>You can use different accounts to categorize your feeds. For example, you
    can create an account named <q>Mozilla News</q> to put in it all your
    feeds related to Mozilla, and another one named <q>Today Headlines</q> to
    put in it all your feeds with general news.</li>
  <li>If you have several accounts, each one can have different settings. This
    way, you can choose, for example, different time intervals for each account
    (and, therefore, their feeds.)</li>
</ul>

<p>[<a href="#getting_started_with_blogs_and_news_feeds">Return to beginning of
  section</a>]</p>

<h2 id="organizing_your_feeds">Organizing your feeds</h2>

<p>The default operation mode when adding a feed to a Blogs &amp; News Feeds
  account in &brandShortName; is to create a folder and a feed inside it.
  However, &brandShortName; allows you a great deal of flexibility. This section
  helps you to better organize your feeds:</p>

<div class="contentsBox">In this section:
  <ul>
    <li><a href="#feeds_vs_folders">Feeds versus folders</a></li>
    <li><a href="#organizing_folders_in_blogs_and_news_feeds_accounts">Organizing
      folders in Blogs &amp; News Feeds accounts</a></li>
    <li><a href="#downloading_multiple_feeds_in_a_single_folder">Downloading
      multiple feeds in a single folder</a></li>
    <li><a href="#moving_a_feed_to_another_folder">Moving a feed to another
      folder</a></li>
  </ul>
</div>

<h3 id="feeds_vs_folders">Feeds versus folders</h3>

<p>Blogs &amp; News Feeds accounts are organized through two main concepts:
  <strong>feeds</strong> and <strong>folders</strong>.</p>
  
<ul>
  <li><strong>Feeds</strong> are sources for articles/posts. They provide
    the means to get new articles from blogs. You subscribe to feeds.</li>
  <li><strong>Folders</strong> in Blogs &amp; News Feeds accounts work pretty
    much like in any other account type. Folders store articles/posts you got
    through the feeds.</li>
</ul>

<p>You use the Feed Subscriptions dialog to tell &brandShortName; which feed
  messages are downloaded in which folders. As feeds provide new articles and
  folders provide the store to put such articles, you will want to have them
  connected, usually linking a feed to a folder. However, keep in mind that
  removing a feed will not automatically delete the associated folder, nor
  will remove the articles/posts from the removed feed, since they are
  stored into the folder.</p>

<p>[<a href="#organizing_your_feeds">Return to beginning of section</a>]</p>

<h3 id="organizing_folders_in_blogs_and_news_feeds_accounts">Organizing folders
  in Blogs &amp; News Feeds accounts</h3>

<p>You can create, rename, move or copy folders in Blogs &amp; News Feeds
  accounts just like with any other account type. See
  <a href="mailnews_organizing.xhtml#creating_a_folder">Creating a folder</a>,
  <a href="mailnews_organizing.xhtml#renaming_a_folder">Renaming a folder</a>
  and <a href="mailnews_organizing.xhtml#moving_or_copying_a_folder">Moving or
  copying a folder</a> for more details.</p>

<p>[<a href="#organizing_your_feeds">Return to beginning of section</a>]</p>

<h3 id="downloading_multiple_feeds_in_a_single_folder">Downloading multiple
  feeds in a single folder</h3>

<p>You may want to use a single folder to store articles/items coming from
  more than one feed. To do this, you just need to add additional feeds in
  that folder. Begin from the Mail window:</p>

<ol>
  <li>In the accounts pane, click your desired Blogs &amp; News Feeds account
    to manage, or a feed inside it.</li>
  <li>Open the File menu and choose Subscribe (or use any other of the
    <a href="#getting_into_the_feed_subscriptions_dialog">available methods</a>.
    to access to the Feed Subscriptions dialog box).</li>
  <li>In the Feed Subscriptions dialog, click in the desired folder, then click
    the Add button. The Feed properties dialog will appear.</li>
  <li>Type (or copy and paste) the feed URL in the Feed URL field.</li>
  <li>Click OK to confirm the feed addition.</li>
</ol>

<p>[<a href="#organizing_your_feeds">Return to beginning of section</a>]</p>

<h3 id="moving_a_feed_to_another_folder">Moving a feed to another folder</h3>

<p>You can move a feed from a folder to another one using any of these
  methods:</p>

<ul>
  <li>Drag &amp; drop a feed while inside the Feed Subscriptions window.</li>
  <li><a href="#editing_a_feed">Edit the feed</a> to change in what folder it
    downloads articles/items.</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Note</strong>: Remember that moving the feed doesn&apos;t move
  existing articles from the folder in which they have been
  downloaded.</p>

<p>[<a href="#organizing_your_feeds">Return to beginning of section</a>]</p>
</body>
</html>
